Porsche receives $A19.6b credit line

Porsche said that it has received a new credit line of 10 billion euros ($A19.63 billion) to buy up shares of fellow German carmaker Volkswagen AG.

25 March 2009

Sports-car manufacturer Porsche SE said that it has received a new credit line of 10 billion euros ($A19.63 billion) to buy up shares of fellow German carmaker Volkswagen AG.

The loan agreement would also allow Stuttgart-based Porsche to expand the loan to 12.5 billion euros ($A24.23 billion) over the coming weeks, it said.

The agreement extended a credit line that expires this month that Porsche has been using to buy Volkswagen shares. It wants to expand its current 50.76 per cent share of Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, to 75 per cent this year.

The approval of the new line of credit had been delayed because of the "extremely difficult world economic environment and turbulence in the credit markets," Porsche said.

The lending banks had imposed additional reviews before approving the loan, Porsche added.